By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says government faces growing legal bills as it grapples with internal issues and an increasing number of court challenges from the private sector and citizens.
Addressing the inaugural Intergovernmental National Litigation Forum in Gauteng on Friday (25 February), Ramaphosa said the legal fees for national and provincial spheres of government over the past five financial years amount to approximately R7 billion.
“Our Bill of Rights holds that every person has the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair; they have a right to seek the review of administrative action by a court of law. This is a right that we must value and uphold.
“The fact that some South Africans are resorting to the courts to uphold their rights points to widespread and systemic shortcomings in service delivery. Our first responsibility as the government is to ensure that we address all these shortcomings and that all persons in this country are able to fully exercise their rights.”
Ramaphosa added that other systemic problems had led to the government’s inflated legal bill – including mass overcharging.
“The state is the largest consumer of legal services in the country. Government is almost always overcharged for legal services. By sheer scale, the government should be paying less for legal services because we are dealing with public funds, “he said.
“We employ hundreds of professionals through the Offices of the State Attorney countrywide to provide litigation and legal advisory services. Yet, despite these considerable human resources, we face significant challenges, many of them of our own making.”
The president called on government departments to be much more alert when handling legal matters.
“When there is a legal case, we must immediately pay attention and pay due diligence, the ineptitude and carelessness must come to an end. We know that delays and failures by government departments to address service delivery issues timeously or to settle matters at early stages increases costs.”
He emphasised that a disaggregated approach can have “huge costs for our fiscus” and government’s ability to fulfil its electoral mandate.
“This forum has been established to drive a coordinated approach to the management of State litigation. This coordinated approach is necessary to ensure that government puts forward the best legal case possible.
“In this time of great scarcity, let us do everything within our means – through effective coordination of litigation – to free up the financial resources of the state to pursue our developmental agenda and improve people’s lives,” Ramaphosa said.
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Video Courtesy of Presidency.